Ara Director Seeks New Life For Downtown

Fred Stevenson, executive director of the Allentown Redevelopment Authority less than two weeks, already is attuned to the problems and needs of the city.

He looks at making the downtown more livable as the key ingredient in spurring the revitalization of the downtown area.

"The main emphasis of the authority has to be in increasing the amount of residential construction close to the central business district," Stevenson said during an interview this week.

"In many areas, the suburbs with their shopping malls are the centers of service and retail business activity. One way to stabilize the situation in Allentown is to increase the number of people living near the central business district."

Having more residents downtown - particularly moderate- and high-income residents - will create greater income for established merchants and permit them to expand, he explained. It also would attract new business, he said.

"Then people won't be so ready to go to suburban malls at the drop of a hat," he remarked.

Stevenson assumed his duties Nov. 18 as the fourth executive director in the 29-year history of the authority (ARA). He replaced Paul W. Zambo, who resigned to become director of development for the Allentown Catholic Diocese.

Stevenson had been economic development director of the Hough Area Development Corp., Cleveland, where he oversaw more than $11 million in economic development projects the past five years.

He previously was a planning consultant for ECOS and a senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, manager of investment economics for the Conference Board of New York City and a research assistant for Irving Trust Co., New York.

The 59-year-old Stevenson decided to apply for the Allentown position because "I was looking for a new challenge."

The emphasis of his work in Cleveland was urban development. He said he wanted to become more involved in housing development.

Furthermore, he said, he wanted to move closer to the eastern seaboard, where he and his wife have friends and relatives. He grew up in Philadelphia.

He recalled that when he came to Allentown to be interviewed, "I was impressed by the airport terminal. It was swept clean, which is very unusual. Then I found Allentown to be an extremely clean city.

"I saw a city that was clean and people who are alive, well and up and running."

One of his challenges, he said, is to help provide more housing through rehabilitation and new construction "to keep people here and to attract new people."

"It is difficult to attract corporations to the central business district unless there is activity after 5 p.m.," he said. "We have to make them feel the place is alive and there is some reason for shopkeepers around the Hamilton Mall to remain open and maintain their properties.

"Otherwise, the trade-off will be for corporations to go to cheaper land in the outskirts of the city. That has been in the history of most American cities. Allentown needs to put a lid on it.

"We need a better balance of people by income level and education to make the downtown a more balanced community."

Stevenson cited several projects as examples of the type of housing the city needs: The 230-unit Riverbend luxury apartments at 5th and Union streets, the 159-unit apartment project planned in the former Mack Trucks Plant 10 in the 700 block of Harrison Street and the 48 units of of townhouses known as Armour Court at 26-36 Wyoming St. and Franklin Court at 4th and St. John streets.

"These will help to bring youngsingles and married people downtown," he said. "They will help infuse the downtown shops with great- er trade.

"Major developments with a thrust of young people with higher education and higher per capita income - these are the kinds of things the central core needs to keep it as a viable nucleus of the local economy. It cannot just be an employment center."

He said the lunch-hour business along the Hamilton Mall is bustling, but, "I have made it my business to go after that period, and it's a rather discouraging sight. I feel the challenge to keep life going after the lunch hour.

"We have to be careful where we concentrate development. The first priority is to retain what is here on Hamilton Street. We have to spend money developing that area. We have to hedge our bets and concentrate on what is in place.

"If we can get a mass of new residents of moderate and high income, quality boutique owners will be attracted to the downtown like a magnet. Some people who own shops downtown will improve their business and will open better shops.

"The redevelopment authority can certainly provide the instruments to help in the process of offering lower-cost financing instead of conventional financing. It can help steer reinvestment to the downtown. We can work with other development agencies to see what can be done to direct fresh investment downtown.

"I want to tie my efforts in with theirs. We cannot do it in grand isolation."

He listed his plans to work in concert with the Allentown Economic Development Corp., the Industrial Development Corp. of Lehigh County, the Joint Planning Commission of Lehigh-Northampton Counties, the Lehigh Valley Futures Forum and the Lehigh Valley Partnership.

"I really do seriously look forward to working with the people here and in the development field so I can do my job better," he concluded.